Screen blacks out during Boot up

[pipemajor]

I've tried that John. I upped the refresh rate from 60htz to 75htz, but it still stayed in low res and gigantic icons.

Thanks for your help.

PM

 

[toph]

Hi,

Been away for a bit but seems you still have the prob..You said earlier that you had a trial graphics card? You mentioned that getting hold of the drivers would be hard. What card is it? Won't Windows just assign a generic driver for it ?

 

[Mickymoody]

Hi all, This a call for help and would be grateful for your advice.

I have an old PC that has been such a reliable machine, but it has developed a serious fault.
Make: Targa
O.S Windows XP

Recently the machine started showing problems by the screen going black without any warning. The computer didn't turn off or re-boot, the screen just went black and would only show images by rebooting.
The problem has got a lot worse since a couple of days ago. Now the screen will not display anything at all in normal mode.

The Problem:
When I switch the PC on it starts to boot up as usual with the screen displaying the Wndows XP logo and the little dots running in the small box. During this process the running dots 'Jolt' and continue but shortly after that the screen goes black. It never reaches the Welcome screen.
I have left it running for a while to see if it will eventually boot up, but it shuts down and reboots.

The machine will start up and is stable in Safe Mode.

The screen is stable in 'Enable VGA Mode' and I can connect to the internet and access all files and areas of the Computer. But when I try to alter the screen settings to a higher resolution the screen goes black.

I have updated the Graphics Driver (NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460) and followed instructions for removing the old driver, before installing new driver, but that didn't fix it.

I have reseated the Graphics Card and that didn't help either.

The monitor is sound so that can be eliminated.

That's about all I can think of

Thanks to all.

PM

I had that fault, and immediately blamed my video card. But I sorted it, when upgrading from Win 95, to XP, or XP to Vista, though I currently run Me and XP, and it was caused by a fault in the BIOS.

It was documented in Microsofts faults, so I downloaded a fix for my BIOS, and it cured the problem. Although a later BIOS upgrade was done incorrectly, and killed the BIOS. So be 100% sure of the correct BIOS update for your system!

To re-iterate - I had that EXACT same problem. That was cured by a BIOS update. But a future BIOS update killed the computer, so beware of installing the WRONG BIOS update.

 

[pipemajor]

Hi Mick,
I couldn't take a chance on updating the BIOS, because the PC isn't stable. There's every chance it will power down during the updating process.

Thanks for your advice.

PM

 

[pipemajor]

Hi Toph,
It is the original Video card and I have updated the drivers. Still no good.
Cheers.

 

[pipemajor]

This is in response to Mickmoody's advice to Flash the BIOS. But anyone who is competent at such a sensitive task is welcome to comment.

My MOBO is an ASUS a7n266-c 1001E and I've updated the appropriate file from the ASUS site and have put it on a floppy disk. The file on the disk says 1001E_c Bin file. 256KB.

I have set the PC to boot from floppy.

I have also had a look at a YouTube video on BIOS updating but it is more than a little complicated for me, most probably because I'm a little afraid of failure.

Therefore, is there anyone who could give me clear written instructions on the correct way to flash the BIOS.

Thanks to all who's helped me with this

 

[opps]

I really can't see why it has anything to do with the bios.

You have been running xp for ages with the same screen. In that time all that would have changed is:

1. windows (via updates updates and driver updates).
2 hardware (possible failure).

If the problem had occured when you moved from one version of windows to another then I would consider the bios but it would probably be the last thing I would try here.

 

[pipemajor]

There's value in your comment, opps, but I've tried every other possible means to correct the problem and none have scored. In the absence of additional info, I'm left with few options but to consider a BIOS update. The computer as it stands is a load of scrap. The problem has progressed to a stage where it shuts down shortly after the icons are displayed and goes into a loop;starts-shuts down-starts etc. So I cannot retrieve any data from it at all.

Many people have tried to help including DIYnot forum members and some have suggested a Boot Virus could have lodged in the BIOS, so there's a possible chance of an update clearing it.

Thanks for your advice, opps, it is appreciated.
PM

 

[JohnD]

if I were you, I would start backing up my files to CD or DVD. I believe you said you could start it OK in safe mode? In which case surely the fault is at Windows or higher, not at Bios level.

Can you lay your hands on an old CRT (not flatscreen) monitor? When my display stopped working (due to refresh rate) it would still work on my old CRT.

 

[pipemajor]

Thanks John, wiith advice from you and opps, I'll suspend the BIOS update.

As I said in an earlier post, when I booted up in 'Enable VGA Mode' everything worked in low resolution, but I could access everything on the PC. But now the screen goes black after icons are displayed, but the computer is still running. But the problem has worsened.
The Monitor is also connected to another PC (not internet connected) via a KVM (Keyboard>Video>Mouse) cable and the screen works fine when transferred.
I have tried to increase the refresh rate but it didn't have any beneficial effect. But in short I don't know anyone who has an old CRT monitor, though I will ask about.

 

[opps]

Hi pipemajor

before the bios option please do try a linu variant first.

if your broadband is crap then go to

http://www.hirensbootcd.net/download.html

the download link is at the very bottom of the page

It is smaller than ubuntu and hosts loads of trouble shooting programs.

Including windows (mini xp) and linux based operating systems. There are also programs that will allow you to test the graphics cards without having to load windows. there are also file explorers/cloning tools to access files on both the HDD and your faulty(?) usb stick.

Alternatively if you have a proper copy of xp you could load a new install into another directory eg rather than c:\windows you could install it in c:\pipemajor

That said, if you have a copy of xp you could just try a non destructive repair install.

 

[pipemajor]

Hi opps, Thanks for the link. I've downloaded the contents and burned it to disk.
Where do I go from here, mate? I can't find any instructions on the NET.

I'm totally lost!

Cheers,
PM

 

[opps]

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Very ong days on site, followed by rushed pints in the pub...

Boot with the hiren and navigate through to the hardware testing section and run one of the programs there.

Alternatively run on of the OSes on the hiren cd such as mini xp.

You aren't rying to fix anything at this satge- you are just trying to see if the fault still occurs when you are not running XP.

I am assuming that you successfully managed to create a bootable Hiren cd given that you managed to get the info back from the usb stick???

Let us know how it goes.